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Human Trafficking Victims
UN office to engage corporate sector
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9 September 2007
New Delhi
Tripti Nath, Tribune News Service
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), South Asia, is engaging India's corporate sector to offer livelihood options to victims of human trafficking.
The UNODC Regional Office for South Asia has invited over a dozen companies to participate in deliberations during its conference scheduled on October 10 and 11 here. The conference "Global Initiative to fight human trafficking" (GIFT) will bring together for the first time representatives of well known companies as Microsoft, Reliance Health, Tata Steel, Naukri.com, Guardian Life Sciences, Shehnaz Herbals and Marie Claire to consider meaningful and life-changing interventions for victims of human trafficking.
Gary Lewis, Regional Representative, UNODC, South Asia said that most of the corporates have the sense of the problem, but don't know about the magnitude of the problem.
"We would like to form a coalition of business partners to combat human trafficking. We have gone to names that Indian citizens would recognise immediately. Besides, some of them have discharged corporate social responsibility in the past.
Microsoft, for example, supports technical training programme for victims of human trafficking. Some of them can share such good practices with other organisations.''
The UNODC Office in New Delhi also tries to offer in its own premises opportunities for former trafficked victims to learn new skills as part of a smaller reintegration effort. Lewis said that his office has invited cine stars who are household names, to throw their weight behind the issue. "We wish to draw attention to this very emotive issue. It is an issue with which people connect immediately.''
